SGI announces port of IRIS Performer 46
SGI just announced a Linux porting effort for IRIS Performer. Performer is an OpenGL-based scene graph library optimized for visual simulation; it's used in areas like military and commercial flight simulation, as well as the rides at DisneyQuest. Release is expected before the end of 1999.
Performer is designed to drive the fastest graphics hardware and run the most demanding graphics apps in existence, so this is very good news.
Re:Why not do Inventor First? (Score:1)
Re:Road Ahead (Score:1)
If you look at the menu you will see the item
OpenGL: The road ahead
As I remember wasn't that the name of Bill's book?
I sense a conspiracy here. (If you like conspiracy theories look in the MaximumPC Issue One, there is a theory about MS holding down SGI while Intel takes over nVidia, sticks it to 3Dfx, and then support D3D only so OpenGL on windows dies and the John Carmacks of the land are punished for not using D3D.)
Re:The lowdown on Linux (Score:1)
the infamous Borris of comp.os.linux.advocacy fame? TummyX seems to have a better command of English than comrade Borris, but the preponderance
of 'geee's and missing function words is striking.
BTW, I've compiled a fortune file of Borris quotes -- perfect for noseguy. Email me if you're interested.
-ckm
Re:Why not do Inventor First? (Score:1)
However from the looks of it Performer will
do just fine for most of my needs for a Ogl
wrapper.
Thanx for the link
Re:Obligatory screenshot? (Score:1)
ph33r (Score:1)
unF
Re:The lowdown on Linux (Score:1)
Ok, with 1400K of free physical memory (out of 96M total) it took ~20 seconds. And X hasn't crashed on her yet. I run *a lot* of software and I'm thinking of getting an additional 128M. That would certainly speed it up. Don't buy cheap no-name brand components for any computer. That'll often cause failure in Linux, because Linux actually uses it where win barely does. See the Sig11 FAQ for the facts on that.
She *hates* 98. I put in a new NIC and let win install a driver for it, which causes a blue screen on startup, and the network doesn't work. Rather than mess around with it, I let Linux do it properly.
It doesn't handle not being shutdown very well (powerless etc)
It handles it fine, especially for a server where you don't have to press 'enter' a bunch of times for no reason. Nice list of options there: press enter to continue, or turn off your computer and never use it again.
Any serious server should have a UPS anyway.
Oh yeah, I've had to use VC++ at a previous job and hated it. KDevelop is only at 0.4 and isn't nearly finished yet. But it's quite useable for me so far.
Re:Expect more from SGI (Score:1)
As for Java, it will be interesting to see how far Sun/IBM will push that barrow in their server centric platforms. The question that Linux has to face is
a) What modularity/extensions will be supported (kernel+application) in the future
b) How do applications talk to each other in a coherent language (XML?)
c) Can one increase complexity while maintaining stability?
I don't know about others but IMHO component technology is still relatively painful to use. Either that or I'm so far behind the learning curve all I can see is a brick wall to bash my head against.
LL
Re:Why not do Inventor First? (Score:1)
You can buy it from TGS [tgs.com].
It's a bit pricey, though. (surprise)
There are also a couple of open source implementations ( Scene [freshmeat.net] and Coin [freshmeat.net]), in varying stages of development:
Re:Go back home to Redmond (Score:1)
before I installed this shitty $16 winmodem, that monopolizes my CPU, windows *never* crashed (and this was windows 98 to. Now I get these weird errors where the screen goes blank and the kb stops working, but I can still hear the MP3 i was listening to... (this only happens when i'm online and listening to an mp3))
There's no reason to think that MS employese *dont't* troll this place. after the second (or was that the 3rd) Mindcraft tests, the number of *pro* MS posts rose very sharply.
you know who I think is an MSer? that william wallice guy, the one who's sig is "Why are so many startrack fans UNIX lovers, when was the last time you heard a captan say 'computer bring up the command line'" (note, this dosn't actualy make any sense, but whatever)
although he does make a lot of non-ms related posts as well.
well it's 3am and I've been trying to get that damn new quake3demo to squeeze through my 44,000kbps pipe, witch dosn't like to stay connected to the internet. whatever
_
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Re:Performer != Maya, Softimage, etc (Score:1)
It should also facilitate the porting of a number of high performance graphics applications to Linux. You must understand that any application which sits on middleware like IRIS Performer must implement vast ammounts of functionality from scratch to be ported to another platform if the API does not exist there. Now Performer WILL exist on Linux. Do not underestimate the value of having this API ported to Linux.
Re:Expect more from SGI (Score:1)
I had thought that this would just let Irix run Linux programs (perhaps with recompile), but it
might just be two-way (or the other way around!)
Simon.
Whatevery you do, don't read this talkback! (Score:1)
I'm just posting for the first time. Checking to see if the formatting is correct.
Have a nice day.
ps: does this LINK [playboy.com] work?
Re: I wish (Score:1)
Why not do Inventor First? (Score:2)
under OpenInventor. So why not do it right
and release OpenInventor4Linux.
Any one have more info on this[mongoose]?
The Future of Farenheit? (Score:1)
IRIS Performer
IRIS Performer is primarily aimed at developers of real-time, multiprocessed, interactive graphics applications
I hope that the new Farenheit APIs can be massaged to retrofit the Performer APIs (though anything mixing multithreading, real-time and fast graphics is sure to be mind-numbing). The challenge for the developer community now is to work out higher-level control/interaction systems and interface them with OpenGL scene graphs. One interesting trend is the use of physics based worlds (see MathEngine http://www.mathengine.com/main.htm) as the need to cleanly separate the physical reality from the representation and display reality.
Given that game boxes such as Sony have recommended the use of Linux, it will be interesting to see whether general purpose PC-based boxes are relegated to development for single-tasked appliances or whether "convergence" means everything will be mixed up.
SGI do make some nice hardware. For example, their R10K supports hardware-based performance monitoring. I just hope their products remain price-competitive to justify the premium. If the computer industry can be compared with the car, then we have the consumers (Ford/Mazda, Intel, AMD) versus the specialists/industrial (Volvo, SGI, IBM). However, learning to drive in one should make it easier to cross over to the next level (no foreign instructions, custom gear boxes or lockin licenses). That's why I think we should applaud SGI for porting their APIs across and why it should benefit the computer industry as a whole.
LL
This rocks! (Score:1)
Re:Obligatory screenshot? (Score:1)
You're welcome...
bpm
The lowdown on Linux (Score:3)
I've been running Linux since '93 do I've got quite a bias. However, advocacy in the way I do it works (especially when talking to programmers).
My mother used excel since the Win3.1 days until I bought a new PC that included Lotus Smartsuite 97. She was hooked. She never looked back on Excel. I moved her to my brothers Win computer so that she could use 1-2-3 because LILO often dumped her into the Linux console if she waited too long (5 seconds). This confused her and I was often woken up from hangovers to help her get into Win or attempt to recover from a BSOD.
Recently (a couple of months ago) I installed SuSE. She loves it. Linux doesn't crash on her and she's happy with StarOffice. I'll soon show her LyX, which I'm sure she'll take to. She avoids my brother's Win machine simply because it crashes. And the vnc server simply blew her mind. I also installed a PHP/MySQL site I developed at school and now she has access to a contact database from anywhere with Internet access.
The way many programmers think (if they don't, they should) is 'Will my mother use it?' I think Linux currently has that capability as long as there is an admin (me, in this case) who can solve problems.
Just a year ago, I would never have pushed it on her. Times change, and she's happy for it.
She loves the 'no crashing' idea, because she's plain sick of blue screens. When I told her it didn't have to be like that, she was all ears.
So my point (I'm currently 'under the infulence' so please excuse typos, etc, if you've been in this state
ESR said that someday people won't tolerate crashes anymore. It's starting to happen.
Rock on,
Re:The Future of Farenheit? (Score:2)
I worked with Paul Strauss, Rikk Carey, et al, on Iris Inventor
back in '92 and '93, and enjoyed the work, the people, the
environment, and the project -- although now I consider the
idea of a toolkit at the level Inventor was designed to fill an
impossible goal, once a toolkit is powerful enough to fulfiill the
requirements of Inventor, it circumscribes the problems that it
can solve.
Anyway, I talked to Paul Strauss at last year's Siggraph in
Orlando, and he told me not to worry, that Fahrenheit
wouldn't replace OpenGL (which I believe is amazingly
good); and that the Microsoft people were behaving
appropriately, that is, they had reasonable respect for SGI's
experience in 3D graphics libraries.
Still, it's been a year, and I have seen no progress whatsoever
toward these new libraries. Perhaps there is internal
'Developer's Program' documentation to which I am not
privy.
I note with some amusement that the only question posed
and not answered at
http://www.sgi.com/software/performer/faq.html
is "How does IRIS Performer relate to the Fahrenheit
Project?" Every other question in the table of contents
is answered below.
I'm sure that I'll find out what the current status of
Fahrenheit is at Siggraph in LA next month, I hope that
my prayers are answered and Fahrenheit was just a bone
tossed to Microsoft, that will be buried in the backyard
and never seen again
Re:Why not do Inventor First? (Score:1)
has some good code in this area too.
TGS is out to lunch, I might pay but not
under their/that license. my2c
Expect more from SGI (Score:4)
Of course, their huge contribution so far is (the promise of) XFS. Linux and other OSS systems are stealing a few years of progress from that; a journaled file system is a big step towards being truly enterprise ready.
The reason I predict we'll see more from these folks is that one of their VP's (Beau something-I-can't-spell) came out earlier this week and said that there'll only be three OSes in ten years, and IRIX ain't on the list. Assuming that SGI's planning to be around in a decade, and assuming that they're not stupid enough to want to pay the MS-Tax for their entire server line, they have a vested interest in seeing Linux evolve.
Of course, personally I think VP Beau is wrong; I have a feeling that IBM/Sequent's new "next gen UNIX" offering is going to crash and burn on the launch pad -- the potential market's got to be really leary of anything resembling another splinter of UNIX. I can't imagine why they're wasting their time with it and not contributing to Linux; you'd think the suits would have learned by now that you can't play on Microsoft's terms and win.
In any event, I'm looking forward to seeing more quantum leaps with companies donating their "best of the breed" niches to the Second Coming of UNIX. I think the rate will pick up as more companies finally realize that they can't turn back the tide of NT by themselves, and that Linux is their only realistic hope to avoid becoming Just Another Windows OEM.
----
Re:The lowdown on Linux (Score:1)
ok, so it may not happen for you. but windows rarely crashes for me - but then again, i run nt not 9x
Excel is faster than StarOffice tho. It's ok unless you start wanting to extend it's functionality - and then you can't. Unlike Excel/Office where i can do anything i want to with it (even without the source).
KDevelop is very very good for a relatively new project. It's not as good as VC++, but it's very impressive. I pretty much depend on it now too
I don't tolerate crashes now. But I don't think Linux is crash free. It's filesystem has totally stuffed up on my more than once, causing dataloss. It doesn't handle not being shutdown very well (powerless etc) - until XFS gets ported and into a distribution, it's vaporware.
Performer != Maya, Softimage, etc (Score:1)
Give aways! (Score:1)
it would be nice to see some hobbiest
initiatives for older MIPS machines, such as
IRIX 5.3 and performer 2.0 at least.
Even along the lines of DEC's OpenVMS
hobbiest licensing for current products.
SGI is adding VALUE to linux, not just more
software, like other offerings. Return the
value to loyal customers, and enthusiast too!
Re:This rocks! (Score:1)
Re:Go back home to Redmond (Score:1)
Re:Why not do Inventor First? (Score:5)
IRIS Performer and Inventor have quite different design objectives. Performer focuses on maximum Performance and scalability (fast hardware, multiple processors and multiple graphics pipes), Inventor is designed for ease of use and user manipulation of 3D data. Performer also has more of an emphasis on features and file formats required by the simulation and training industries.
For tutorials on how to program with Performer as well as lots of screen shots & source code of some advanced Performer demos see:
http://www.dorbie.com/ [dorbie.com]
This should give you a taste of the kind of graphics empowered by IRIS Performer and how you go about writing code for them using the API.
Performer (Score:1)
Re:This rocks! (Score:1)
Re:This rocks! (Score:1)